ABSTRACT
Death investigation was considered a local, governmental or county function when the United States was created, and no provision was made in the Constitution for a coroner. The federal government had no death investigation operations, except in the District of Columbia, until the creation of the Federal Med ical Examiner’s Office in the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in the 1990s. Each state enacted coroner’s laws, and coroners are most often elected county officials.
